Two Much Alike. Pamela Bauer

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      Frannie hoped no one heard her sigh of relief.

      Emma’s face dropped. “I thought you said you were staying the whole summer.”

      “Just for part of the summer, dear. But I will be here all of June and part of July.”

      “What about your job?” Frannie asked.

      “Oh, I quit,” she said with a flap of her hand.

      “You quit?”

      “Yes. Don’t look so alarmed, Frannie. I’ll find another,” she said nonchalantly, then turned to the twins and said, “Wait until you see what I brought for you.”

      “Did you bring us cards with the holes in them?” Alex asked, moving closer to the couch.

      “I most certainly did,” Arlene said proudly. “Two decks for each of you.”

      “And the teeny bottles of shampoo and lotion?” Emma wanted to know.

      Arlene nodded. “They smell just heavenly. Wait until you see.”

      Because she worked as a cashier at a hotel casino in Atlantic City, Arlene often brought playing cards as well as complimentary bottles of lotion and shampoo.

      Her glance moved between Emma and Alex. “Now, what should we do today? Gramma wants to take you someplace fun.” Arlene looked at Frannie and asked, “You don’t have plans for today, do you?”

      “Actually, I do.” She was assigned to cover a charity walk-a-thon. She’d planned to put Luke in the stroller and let Emma and Alex push him, as they walked with the rest of the participants and she took photos.

      Alex groaned. “We don’t have to go to that, do we?”

      “Go where?” Emma asked.

      “Some stupid walk-a-thon,” Alex answered.

      “It’s not stupid. It’s for a good cause,” Frannie chastised him.

      “We can always do something tomorrow,” Arlene suggested, which provoked groans from the twins. Then she looked at Frannie and said, “Or I could take the children today and then you’d be free to concentrate on your work.”

      It was a tempting offer. The children would be a distraction while she tried to work. On the other hand, Frannie knew her children could be a handful, especially Luke. The memory of her son throwing a temper tantrum the last time she’d had him at the mall made her hesitate. As much as Frannie wanted to say yes, she wasn’t sure she could do so with a clear conscience.

      Finally, after much cajoling by the twins, she agreed to let them stay with their grandmother, but extracted the promise that they would help their grandmother with Luke. They also needed to complete their Saturday chores, which would give Arlene a chance to rest before their adventure.

      Alex didn’t protest the later start. “That means I can go over to Josh’s and get my posters done.”

      That raised his grandmother’s curiosity. “What posters are those?”

      “I’ll show you,” he answered, then disappeared into his room.

      Frannie thought about stopping him, but knew it would only be a matter of time until Arlene found out about his campaign to find his father. When Alex returned with the flyer, he held it up for his grand-mother’s inspection.

      “I’m trying to find my dad. Me and my friend Josh made this, but I have to change the phone number. That’s why I have to go to his house. He has a computer,” he explained.

      Arlene looked first at the poster, then at Frannie, her eyes filled with questions. Frannie didn’t know how to answer them, so she simply lifted her brows and shrugged.

      “I’m going to put them up all over Minneapolis, and some of my friends are going to take them when they go on vacation this summer,” Alex continued. “Will you take some back to Atlantic City with you, Gramma?” He looked at his grandmother expectantly.

      Arlene placed her hand on his shoulder. “If it’s important to you, of course I will, but I don’t know if it will do any good. I doubt he’s anywhere close. If your father were living near me, he’d call.”

      “But there are lots of people who come to the casinos and hotels. Maybe a tourist will see the poster and recognize his picture,” Alex argued.

      Frannie could see how unsettling it was for Arlene to have such a discussion with her grandson, and decided to change the subject. “Okay, kids, get your chores done.”

      That got Alex to table the discussion of his missing father. Frannie knew, however, it was a subject that wouldn’t be left for long. Sooner or later she and Arlene would have to talk about Dennis’s disappearance and Alex’s quest.

      That’s why she wasn’t surprised when later that evening, after the kids had gone to bed, Arlene joined her in the kitchen. Frannie offered to make her a cup of tea, but the older woman said she just wanted to sit for a bit and talk.

      Seeing her yawn Frannie said, “The kids can wear you out, can’t they.”

      “It’s a nice kind of tired. Alex, Emma and Luke are good kids, Frannie. You’re doing a fine job with them,” she said, taking a seat at the table where Frannie sat folding the laundry.

      Frannie smoothed the wrinkles out of a small undershirt. “Thank you, Arlene. I do my best.”

      “I know you do. And it shows. Of course, Luke does have quite a temper,” she remarked.

      Frannie gave her a smile. “He had a tantrum?”

      “I didn’t know kids could arch their backs that way,” she reflected with a weary chuckle.

      Frannie grimaced. “I’m sorry if he was a handful.”

      “There’s nothing to be sorry about. I’m a mother, too. I know what kids are like.” She picked up one of Luke’s socks that had fallen out of Frannie’s basket. “I’d forgotten how tiny they make these things.”

      Frannie smiled in understanding and continued to fold the clothes. “I appreciate your help with the kids today. They didn’t want to go to the walk-a-thon.”

      “And you shouldn’t have to take them with you when you work,” Arlene said as she reached inside the laundry basket for the matching sock.

      “Most of my assignments are during the week, and I can drop the kids off at day care if necessary, but on weekends I have to rely on the girl next door. When she’s busy, it means I either have to find someone to cover for me at the paper or bring the kids along.”

      “That can’t be easy,” Arlene commented, adding the pair of folded socks to Frannie’s pile.

      “No,” she said. “That’s why I’m grateful for what you did today.”

      Arlene blew off Frannie’s gratitude with a wave of her hand. “It was nothing. Actually, I’m the one who should be thanking you. You’ve СКАЧАТЬ